Call Me Uncle Tom?: Think About It

Lillian Thompson has always wondered who she is and why she is here on Earth. While growing up during the 1960s in Cleveland, Ohio, and attending a Mennonite church, she felt a responsibility to follow the beliefs her parents practiced daily. As the youngest of five children, Lillian journeyed through early childhood without noticing racial differences. But when she began attending public school and found herself a minority, Lillian began to slowly transform into a good girl at church and a bad girl on the streets.

In her memoir, Lillian describes a poignant and challenging coming-of-age journey in which she dutifully follows the word of God, while being placed in several different situations that cause her to simultaneously question the meaning of love. After enduring sexual abuse by a neighbor’s son, Lillian wonders if she will ever find true love—until she meets Morris. But when she becomes pregnant and later marries Morris, she realizes that the way of life she has been following for years no longer holds its appeal. And so begins her pilgrimage to the truth.

Call Me Uncle Tom? shares one woman’s story of how her faith in God was not only tested and shaped by her life experiences, but also by racial and religious cultures in America.